More than 1,000 elementary students in Laurel and another 70 children with learning disabilities at the Gateway Charter School near Wilmington are among those expected to benefit from nearly $1.5 million in innovation grants awarded recently by the State Department of Education.
“This is an opportunity to support the promising ideas of those who work closest with our children. These educators have a unique perspective about what their students need, and this is the chance for us to provide them the funding to make some of those ideas a reality,” Secretary of Education Mark Murphy said. “In turn, we hope to learn from their successes and share those with other schools and districts that could replicate them for their students’ benefit.”
The 14 grants totaled $1,486,143, including $600,000 to a consortium of four districts to create transformative high school programs. The funds were allocated from the department’s budget line for school improvement projects.
The $149,974 grant to North Laurel Elementary and Laurel Intermediate schools, the second largest awarded, is for a project called iImpact, which will put iPods and iPads in the hands of about 1,050 students in second through sixth grade to provide them with instruction, reinforcement and remediation in both reading and math both in school and at home.
The equipment is now being purchased and should be available for student use in four or five weeks, according to Jennifer F. Givens, the Laurel district’s associate superintendent for curriculum, instruction and achievement.
The new technology will increase opportunities for “flipped instruction,” in which students access traditional lesson content through electronic devices at home while doing the exercises formerly associated with homework inside the classroom, where teachers can monitor their work first-hand and provide immediate assistance. In addition, the apps loaded onto the devices will include tutorials and provide cues to students, enabling them to grasp concepts more readily, Givens said.
Parents will learn about the initiative through PTA meetings, newsletters and other communications, she said. But, she added, “the children will be the most important part in helping parents to see and understand the impact of personalized instruction using technology.”
Gateway, the only charter school to receive a separate grant, will use its $50,922 award to expand a reading workshop program, which challenges students to read a specific number of books during the school year. Catherine Dolan, the head of school, said the funds will permit the purchase of 70 iPads and charging devices. Targeting older students in the school, which serves grades three through eight, teachers will download books that are at or slightly above students’ reading levels onto the iPads.
The program boosts students’ reading comprehension because the iPads enable them to click on any word they do not understand and the definition pops up instantly, Dolan said. Gateway students who used the pilot program last year saw significant increases in their reading scores on standardized tests, she said.
Other grants awarded are:
• Gallaher Elementary School (Christina School District): $116,029 for a program to ensure that students have the necessary prerequisite skills in reading and mathematics to begin mastering the Common Core State Standards.
• Polytech High School (Polytech School District): $143,000 for curriculum training and the purchase of training materials, trade books, other teacher resources and interactive technology.
• Brandywine, Concord and Mount Pleasant high schools (Brandywine School District): $26,500 for teacher training, texts and classroom materials to improve instruction in biology.
• Chipman Middle School (Lake Forest School District): $17,714 for Engaging Students in History through Common Core, a classroom project that will provide students with opportunities to read and analyze primary and secondary source materials to engage them in the study of U.S. history through the eyes of the people who actually lived it and witnessed it.
• Stanton Middle School (Red Clay Consolidated School District): $45,083 for a program to improve school culture and social competence of students by training teachers in The Heart of Learning and Teaching: Compassion, Resiliency, and Academic Success framework and coaching in collaborative problem solving. The grant also will fund universal screening for behavioral deficits and targeted intervention planning for all students.
• A.I. du Pont middle and high schools (Red Clay Consolidated School District): $39,000 for a cooperative high school/middle school partnership to allow rising 7th and 8th graders in the middle school to work with students at the high school to create public presentations focused on Earth resources and astronomy. They will utilize the planetarium at the middle school and observatory on the roof of the high school, which will receive a new dome.
• Warner Elementary School (Red Clay Consolidated School District): $24,099 to expand the school’s fourth and fifth grade club period to second and third grades. Last year’s clubs focused on topics such as math, LEGO Robotics, Science Olympiad, poetry, Spanish and agriculture.
• Brittingham and Shields elementary schools (Cape Henlopen School District): $48,012 to create a district consortium to help close a socio-economic divide in the district through increased use of digital media and blended reading for fifth-grade students and enhanced teacher collaboration and training.
• A.I. du Pont, Dickinson, McKean, Conrad, Cab Calloway, Delaware Military Academy and Wilmington Charter high schools (Red Clay Consolidated School District): $70,500 to provide evening SAT preparation classes for all 11th grade students before the state SAT administration in April. Transportation and materials will be provided.
• H.B. du Pont Middle School (Red Clay Consolidated School District): $32,710 for two five-week programs designed to reduce bullying, improve academic performance and decrease suspension rates among students who are cultural minorities living in the city of Wilmington and eligible for free and reduced-price lunches.
• All Red Clay elementary and middle schools (Red Clay Consolidated School District): $122,600 for 4th to 6th Grade Partnership Institute, which will expand and deepen educator content knowledge related to the Common Core State Standards.
